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Ever wake up with a strange, overwhelming craving for bananas, or a thick cut of steak, or an extra-salty bowl of miso soup?

Some of that might just be because those things taste good, but specific cravings can be our bodies’ way of telling us that we need a certain kind of nutrient—potassium, or iron, or sodium—and that we’re not getting enough.

For some of the herbivores of the Serengeti, the craving they wake up to is an overwhelming urge to crunch down…

…on a bone.

Bone-eating, known as “osteophagia,” is more commonly observed in predators. Their stomachs and jaws are designed to deal with digesting meat and bone, and some of them—like hyenas—even eat prey whole.

Herbivores, on the other hand, aren’t equipped to chew through bone. But they still need the nutrients it contains in abundance—including calcium and phosphorous—nutrients which aren’t readily available in their diets of scrub, grasses, and tree leaves.

So some of them—including giraffes, cape buffalos, several antelope species, and zebras—gnaw on bones instead.

Though it’s not a very efficient process (without the same digestive acids as predators, drawing nutrients from the bones is difficult, at best), it’s been observed often enough, across enough different species, for scientists to conclude that it’s fulfilling a nutritional need for the creatures.

Perhaps one of the strangest osteophagists is the leopard tortoise.

Its jaws are too small to pick up anything other than the smallest bones (which aren’t easy to find), so it makes do with a double-dose of phagia: osteophagia via coprophagia.

Coprophagia is the consumption of dung, and it’s often practiced by young herbivores (who need a “dose” of their parents’ gut bacteria in order to effectively digest their food), as well as scavenger species.

The tortoises practice it very selectively: they only eat hyena scat, and only very occasionally. That’s because hyenas eat their kills whole, chewing through enough bone with their meals to turn their scat completely white.

For us, the white scat might just seem like an oddity, but to the tortoises, it’s like a giant vitamin, packed with the calcium and phosphorous their bodies need.

Apparently, when it comes to animals—and our occasionally confused classifications of them as strict “herbivores” and “carnivores”—we just haven’t accounted for taste.

We’ve all heard of herds of cattle, or packs of dogs, but some species get-togethers go by strange names. These little-known terms date back to the 15th century, when English gentlemen would study them in their “books of venery.” Knowing to call it a “gaggle” (not a “group”) of geese was one of the many (strange) markers of gentility at the time.

The terms may seem outdated, but several have so thoroughly embedded themselves in our language that we don’t even realize how strange they are; a “school” of fish isn’t really any more obvious than a “murder” of crows, if you think about it!

Would you prove yourself a gentleman? Take our African Animal Quiz and find out just how much you know about the language of animals:

1.) Which animal hangs out in a “bask” or a “float” (we’ll give you an almost-hint: it’s aquatic)?

a.) Sea turtles

b.) Crocodiles

c.) Hippopotamuses

d.) Tigerfish

2.) Flamingoes are known for their bright pink finery; what are groups of them known as?

a.) A “bling”

b.) A “flutter”

c.) A “flamboyance”

d.) A “sparkle”

3.) Buffalo seem to derive their group name from one of their most recognizable traits, namely:

a.) Obstinacy

b.) Heaviness

c.) Sluggishness

d.) Buoyancy

4.) Hyenas also have an evocative group name. These predators travel in:

a.) Giggles

b.) Guffaws

c.) Chortles

d.) Cackles

5.) Many animals have more than one possible group name, and some group names can apply to more than one species. If you mention a “clan,” you could be referring to either:

a.) Honey badgers or hyenas

b.) Wild dogs or cheetahs

c.) Servals or Thomson’s gazelles

d.) Baboons or elephants

6.) Many people know that lions hang out in “prides,” but their groups are also known as:

a.) Saults

b.) Troops

c.) Both of the above

d.) None of the above

7.) One animal on this list is just screaming for your attention. If you see a “sounder” in the Serengeti, you’re looking at a group of:

a.) Aardvarks

b.) Warthogs

c.) Pangolins

d.) Leopards

8.) Many animals have military-inspired group names, including:

a.) Giraffes

b.) Frogs (all species)

c.) Elephants

d.) All of the above

Check below to see if you’re an animal expert…or if you need to go back to school (the one WITHOUT the fishes!)

Identifying scat is one of the exciting components of a walking safariPhoto: Thomson Safaris staffer, Ali Riley

There are many signs guides use in the field to help them find animals; the nearest source of water, the flick of a tail from a tree-branch, or even the intensity of the heat of the day (and where it might drive animals to take cover).

But one of the most unignorable guideposts when looking for game is something animals leave behind on their travels: their scat.

Animal droppings tell an incredibly rich story; scat can tell an expert guide what animals have been through, how recently, even whether they’re eating enough lately.

The makeup of scat, as well as the consistency, is directly related to an animal’s diet and digestive process. Ruminants with multi-chambered stomachs leave behind hard, pellet-like scat. A carnivore, on the other hand, might have pieces of bone in its droppings.

The shape also tells you a lot; cat droppings, for example, tend to be teardrop shaped, pointed at one or both ends. Whether the animal has covered the scat gives you another clue (cats, for example, often do).

If you’re brave enough to touch it, you can learn just how long ago the animal passed by; warm scat means it was very recently, cold but soft scat means somewhat recently, and dry or crumbly scat means the animal may have passed by weeks or even months ago.

But the most important step is knowing what you’re on the lookout for (after all, some animals you may not WANT to chase after). Can you identify the following droppings?

Photo: Thomson Safaris guest, Ted Loebenberg

What can you see? It’s obviously a grazer (and it looks like it spends a lot of time grazing). It’s relatively contained, which rules out hippos (who spray their scat with their tails as a way of marking territory).

One thing you may not be able to see it in this picture: it’s very, very large…

Answer: Elephant

Elephant dung is recognizable because of the high plant-matter content…but mostly because there’s never just a LITTLE of it in any one place.

What about this next one?

Photo: Thomson Safaris guest, Ted Loebenberg

Hard, pellet-like, and compact. It can only be…

Answer: Antelope

If you look at the scale of this picture, with individual blades of grass much longer, even, than the pellets, you can infer that this came from a small antelope, possibly a dik-dik or klipspringer.

This next one might stump you:

Photo: Thomson Safaris guest, Ted Loebenberg

Let’s be honest, there’s only one thing you’re looking at here: it’s white?

Answer: Hyena

Hyenas have incredibly strong jaws and tough stomachs, which means they can eat an entire kill…including the bones. The calcium in the bones is what gives their scat its characteristic white color!

What can you see here:

Photo: cheetahupdates.blogspot.com

It’s compact, but not in pellets. There’s no visible plant matter, but there’s no visible traces of bones, either. Look at the very end; do you notice the pointed shape?

If you saw the photo credit, from cheetahupdates.blogspot.com, you might be able to guess…

Answer: Cheetah

Many cats—even big cats—bury their droppings, but cheetah will often leave them out in the open on top of lookout points, such as a well-situated termite mound, as a way of saying “this seat’s taken.”

Considering the nature of the marker, we’re happy to let the cheetahs have it…

The sun-drenched plains of Tanzania are an ideal spot for wildlife viewing, but no matter how long you’re willing to wait, there are certain animals you’re unlikely to ever spot.

That’s because many of the animals that call Tanzania home are primarily nocturnal, spending the warm days resting, hidden in a shady nook or an underground burrow, and only emerging after dark to hunt and explore.

We didn’t want our guests to miss out on this prime-time for wildlife viewing, so we recently set up night vision camera traps near a few of the nyumba camps. Motion-activated, these cameras offer us a glimpse of the nocturnal wildlife visitors in the area (and might give travelers an idea of what that sound outside REALLY was).

In just the first few days, we spotted a:

Hyena

Though it’s easy to spot hyenas during the day, they’re most active at night. If you listen closely after dark—or really at all—you’ll likely hear their eerie cries in the distance.

Crested Porcupine

During the daytime, crested porcupines keep cool in underground burrows or caves, but overnight, they head out to hunt for bones…(yes, you read that right).

Civet

It’s hard to see in this photo, but one of the civet’s most easily-recognizable characteristics is well-suited to a life of sneaking around at night: its “face mask” markings, similar to a racoon’s!

Genet

We only caught a (back-of-the-)head shot of this little guy, so you can’t see his extra-long tail, used to help the small, mongoose-like genets maintain balance when they jump from tree-limb to tree-limb!

Bushpig

This bushpig is probably out foraging for roots, carrion, or even small mammals. Though we didn’t catch any pictures of them, it’s a good bet that he has several friends nearby; the pigs usually travel in packs.

Honey Badger

These honey badgers don’t care that there’s a camera nearby; they’re too busy digging up snacks (besides honey, they also love insects, small reptiles, and birds). What’s really exciting for us is catching this notoriously grumpy grubber its offspring. The animals are mostly solitary, and don’t even share their burrows (maybe it’s because even THEY can’t stand their tempers!).

Believe it or not, since toddlerhood you, your children, and just about everyone you know, have been speaking Greek.

Not fluently, of course; it’s not exactly the most common second language among the infant population, after all. But any child who’s gleefully turned through a picture book and pointed out favorite animals has the Greeks to thank; their (often quite literal) descriptions of the strange and fantastical creatures living in the countries to the south stuck, and we’re still using many of them today.

Quick: what do you think when you hear “river horse?” The moment in Oregon Trail when you’re forced to ford the river? A seahorse that got seriously lost?

If you were an Ancient Greek, you’d imagine a hippopotamus. Herodotus is generally credited with naming this strange creature, which he had observed in Egypt; híppos potámios, or “river horse,” was the only way he could think to describe it.

Here’s one you might be able to guess: which safari must-see would Greeks think of as ol’ nose-horn? If you guessed the rhinoceros, you’d be right; its name comes from rhino (as in rhinoplasty) and keras, the same root-word for the SUBSTANCE of rhino-horns: keratin.

Alright, what’s the littlest lion you’ll find in Tanzania? Here’s a hint: it’s not a cub…or even a mammal. It’s a chameleon; apparently the Greeks thought this color-changing reptile appeared a little like a dwarfish (chamai can mean low to the ground or dwarf) leon, or lion (who we can also thank the Greeks for naming!). We can see it…if we squint.

One we can’t see? The lady pig. For reasons long lost to history, that’s what the Greeks dubbed the hyena (hýaina,to them), whose pig-like appearance (hŷs is the Greek for swine) was softened somewhat with a feminine suffix, –aina.

And one even the Greeks couldn’t quite figure out? The leopard. Was he more leon, or more pardus (panther)? Eh, let’s cover all the bases just in case.

Of course the Greeks aren’t the only ones who got in on the wildlife-naming fun. We can thank early Dutch settlers in South Africa for “aardvark,” which literally translates to “earth pig” (aarde + varken). They’re also the reason we refer to the migration of the wildebeests (and what wild and crazy beests they are).

The Romans likewise gave us quite a few animal appellations: porcupines were seen as pigs (porcus) with spines (spinae). And with flamingos, the only thing you CAN see—their flamma, or flame-like coloring—earned them their title (at the time the bird was named, the Romans had spread throughout Europe, and they paired the latinate root, flamma, with an ending from one of the many lands where they then held dominion; in this case, the Germanic ing).

Their names may seem obvious to us today, but one thing’s certain: our forebears didn’t really know what they were seeing roaming the African plains.

One thing they did know, though? When in doubt, call it a something-pig.

Medieval notions about African animals are interesting (and often amusing), in large part because most of the people writing about these strange creatures had never seen one up close, and were largely imagining their features and behavior.

One myth that persisted long after the dark ages ended, however, was the theory that hyenas are born hermaphrodites.

Sound implausible? Let’s take a look at the (confusing) evidence.

Fact 1: Male and female hyenas show no real size difference

This is stranger than you might think; in most mammal species, if you lined up the males and females side by side, there’d be a fairly clear-cut size difference, with the males significantly larger than the females. To give you an idea of just how big the gender gap is in other species: male wildebeest weigh 550 pounds on average, while females weigh in around 400 pounds; male lions average around 400 pounds, while females hover around 275 pounds; male African elephants weigh around 12,000 pounds, females weigh nearer to 8,000 pounds.

In fact, hyenas’ lack of size dimorphism is even stranger: if anything, it’s the females that tend to be larger.

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Fact 2: Hyena societies are female dominant

Of course hyenas aren’t the only matriarchal species, but (like it or not) more species are male-dominant than otherwise.

Some scientists believe hyena society developed this way because of hyenas’ notorious ruthlessness, even amongst themselves. “Sharing” isn’t a concept hyenas believe in very strongly; in order to compete with males effectively for food, and get enough to produce good milk for offspring, female hyenas may have evolved to be both larger and in-charger than the males.

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Fact 3: Male and female genitalia appear identical

“C’mon,” you’re thinking, “there’s a pretty quick way to separate the ladies from the gentleman. Ahem. Cough.”

Well with almost any other species you’d be right; male mammals usually have a pretty obvious calling card.

It just so happens that female hyenas are also…card-carriers.

From afar, this “pseudopenis” looks almost identical to a male hyena’s member. This may be why some scientists claimed, well into the last century, that hyena couldn’t be sexed without an autopsy (they can, it just takes pretty keen eyesight).

Don’t believe us? See how well you do: which hyenas in this video are the boys and which are the girls?

Thomson Safaris

Founded in 1981 and based in Watertown Massachusetts, Thomson Safaris has been handcrafting trips-of-a-lifetime for over 35 years. Tanzania is our only destination, and has truly become our second home. We’re excited to be able to share it with you through stories and features on our blog.